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monstrate that there is no market for home timber, which seldom 

 fetches its value, and that there is a prejudice against it which increases 

 the difficulty of any attempt to compete with the foreigner. 



20. There is some reason in the latter part of this contention. The 

 wood-grower in Britain has I think just cause for complaint when he 

 finds his produce not only handicapped by preferential transport ra'es 

 to foreign timber, as has been the case in the past, but that it is also 

 disparaged by exclusion from, or admission only under conditions to, 

 competition with foreign timber by the terms of building specifications. 

 It is said to be the common practice of architects and others to bar home 

 timber in this way, and the Government itself has not been guiltless in 

 the matter. The Post Office form of tender a couple of years ago for 

 telegraph poles entirely cut out native produce from competition, and 

 the conditions of contract framed by the Board of Agriculture under the 

 Land Improvements Act were until recently almost prohibitive to home 

 timber. These latter are now modified, but whether or not the Post Office 

 still b oycotts home produce I cannot say. 



21. However it is come about - and there are no doubt various effective 

 causes — this undervaluing of home-grown timber is quite unreasonable, 

 and the slur cast upon it is undeserved, so far as its quality is concerned. 

 At the same time, there is ground for saying that the difficulties, occa- 

 sioned in this and other ways, of disposing of home timber at remune- 

 rative prices are due to causes not altogether beyond the control of land- 

 owners who grow timber. 



22. It is generally admitted that with a more regular and certain 

 supply, as well as a larger amount in different district^, home timber 

 would have a better chance of holding its own in the market. This is 

 just what scientific forestry would bring about. Given a systematic 

 cultivation of forest on scientific principles of rotation, and the condi- 

 tions are prepared for a steady output of timber by annual cut, as well as 

 for .a supply of raw material for utilisation in the manufacture of the 

 many subsidiary products derivable from forest growth. If landowners 

 would only provide such supplies, they would alter altogether, and to 

 their own advantage, the conditions under which they dispose of so much 

 of their home wood. The timber merchant who now travels hither and 

 thither over the country picking up small lots where they may occur for 

 transport to his, probably distant, mills, at a cost which eats a big hole 

 in the value of the trees to the landowner, would find it worth his while — 

 and for that matter, it would be worth while for the landowner him- 

 self — to erect in the vicinity of the forest, mills for the purpose of con- 

 verting and preparing the timber, and to put up machinery for the ex- 

 traction of useful products from the waste wood. In such conditions a 

 steady market could be created in which the advantage would lie alto- 

 gether on the side of the home grown article, and materials, the debris 

 of the forest, now thrown aside as useless, would be turned to account to 

 the greater benefit of the landowner. Encouragement, too, would be 

 given to the establishment of local industries dependent upon forest 

 growth, through which fresh outlets for forest produce would be pro- 

 vided. 



23. The amount of profit returnable from timber cultivation must of 

 course vary with the circuni stances of the area in each case, but in com- 



